Anti-vaxers lie for the same reason as other people – for personal benefit.

Many anti-vaxers claim that there is an international conspiracy of doctors and researchers, as if all of the doctors and researchers, or even the pediatric doctors and researchers, in the world could agree on much of anything. When you realize how ridiculously large this conspiracy would be, how much a doctor or researcher would gain from providing valid information to expose such a conspiracy, and how aggressively law enforcement would punish those behind such a conspiracy, you understand the use of ridiculous is appropriate as a description of the conspiracy theory.

This is just another example of some people thinking they know more than everyone else, based on a lack of understanding. This feeds the over-inflated egos of anti-vaxers.

The smallpox vaccine has saved hundreds of millions of lives. Anti-vaxers opposed the smallpox vaccine and delayed the eradication of smallpox. Anti-vaxers helped smallpox kill people..

Our children are no longer vaccinated against smallpox, because smallpox has been wiped out by vaccines. Millions of children’s lives, and adult lives, are saved every year by the smallpox vaccine, without even giving it to children, because enough people rejected the lies of anti-vaxers.

Vaccines continue to save millions of lives every year, in spite of opposition by anti-vaxers.

There is plenty of research showing that vaccines are effective and safe, but to give the single clearest example of the benefit of vaccines, look at the following paper from JAMA. The Journal of the American Medical Association is one of the most respected medical publications in the world. Use any search engine to find a list of the most respected medical journals and you will find JAMA near the top.

Look at the decrease in the rates of illness and the rates of death for each vaccine-preventable illness after the introduction of the vaccine for that illness. Click on the image for a larger, easier to read version.

This information has been simplified for those not comfortable with scientific research (I do not know the source of the image, it was not part of the paper in JAMA):

As you can see, these diseases are almost never a problem in America, where vaccination rates are still pretty high, although anti-vaxers are causing more and more outbreaks of diseases we had not seen in decades.

Some anti-vaxers will claim that the vaccines didn’t get rid of these diseases. These anti-vaxers claim that improved sanitation, improved hygiene, and improved diet got rid of these diseases. While these improvements are helpful, here is why that is just another anti-vax lie.

We have outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in America, when the rate of vaccination drops, even though sanitation, hygiene, and diet did not deteriorate. Yes, many of our diets are getting worse, but that is not what is causing outbreaks of whooping cough, measles, and other vaccine-preventable illnesses.

The rates of illness and death only have a dramatic change for each of the vaccine-preventable illnesses after the introduction of each vaccine. If sanitation, hygiene, and diet were the reasons, the illnesses would all start to go away at the same time, although not necessarily at the same rate. If that were the case, the decreases in these diseases could easily be shown to be due to improvements in sanitation, hygiene, and diet, but that is not the case.

Anti-vaxers cannot explain that, but anti-vaxers are not reasonable.

Why has the polio vaccine been so effective in India, when India has widespread problems with sanitation, hygiene, and diet?

Here is what the authors wrote:

India, a vastly diverse country with a 27 million birth cohort, undertook the largest vaccination drive against WPV (Wild Polio Virus) in the world. With high population density, poor civic infrastructure, poor sanitation, an almost nonexistent public health system, rampant malnutrition and diarrhea, difficult-to-reach locales, high population mobility, and extremely high force of WPV transmission in few states,3 the interruption of WPV transmission was extremely difficult and demanding. The interplay of these challenging factors provided a perfect milieu for the WPV to circulate, and the prospect of achieving zero-polio status seemed insurmountable.[2]

India completed a full 5 years as a “polio-free nation” on January 13, 2016.1 It was a remarkable feat considering the odds against achieving this status.[2]

Anti-vaxers will make excuses, but this clearly exposes the anti-vax lie that disease elimination being due to improved sanitation, hygiene, and diet, rather than due to vaccines.

The reason smallpox vaccine is no longer given to children, is the worldwide eradication of smallpox by vaccination.

Anti-vaers delayed the worldwide eradication of smallpox.

Anti-vaxers have prevented the worldwide eradication of polio.

Anti-vaxers continue to try to protect polio from eradication.

Children would no longer need polio vaccination, if it weren’t for anti-vaxers.

If you don’t like giving the polio vaccine to your child, blame the anti-vaxers.

You can also read the full text of the article for free at Pediatrics at the link below, if you want to understand more of the details that the anti-vaxers don’t want you to understand. Pediatrics is one of the most respected pediatric medical publications in the world. Use any search engine to find what pediatric medical journals are the most respected and you will find Pediatrics near the top.

Effective July 27, 2018, the latest anti-vax doctor to have his license revoked will be Dr. Bob Sears. Yes, he promotes his image as Dr. Bob.

Who are the dangerous doctors Bob Sears will be joining?

Andrew Wakefield‘s fraudulent research, unnecessarily painful research on children, lack of ethical approval for research, and other corruption, convinced the British General Medical Council to revoke his license. Wakefield was also trying to sell a vaccine of his own, to compete with the MMR (polyvalent Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine. Wakefield’s attempts to discredit the MMR vaccine would have helped him to sell his own competing vaccine.

the lawyers responsible for the MMR lawsuit had paid Wakefield personally more than £400,000, which he had not previously disclosed.[67][1]

Andrew Wakefield claims that he is not a fraud and sues a lot of people.

All of the cases have been thrown out by the courts or have been withdrawn by Wakefield.[2]

Do those who claim to be trying to protect their children, by avoiding vaccines, based on a trust of this fraudulent doctor, know what Wakefield has done?

–

The kiddie castrators – David Geier and Mark Geier.

David Geier was never a doctor, but has been caught faking it.[3] In the make believe world of anti-vaxers, why let reality get in the way of pretending to have credibility?

Mark Geier was a doctor, but had his license revoked in every state where he had a license (Maryland, Washington, Virginia, California, Missouri, Illinois, and Hawaii). Why do the Geiers castrate children? Chemical castration is an approved treatment for some rare conditions. Mastectomy is an approved treatment for some breast cancers, but that does not mean that it is at all ethical, or competent, to recommend mastectomy as treatment for other medical conditions. The Geiers claim to believe that castration cures autism. There is no valid evidence to support their hunch.

Consider this. You have an autistic child and someone tells you there is a cure. The person says that they know their expensive chemicals work. The person may even say, I’ve seen it work.[4] All you have to do is give permission for this doctor (before his license was revoked), and his son the fake doctor, to use chemicals to castrate your child.

Do you ask for evidence?

Their is no valid evidence. You just have to trust the castrators and their excuses for the absence of evidence.

The “evidence” has been retracted, because the research is junk science. All human research has to be approved by an independent IRB (Institutional Review Board) to make sure that there are not any conflicts of interest or unnecessary risks to the children participating in the research. The members of the independent IRB were the Geiers, the Geier’s employees, and the Geier’s lawyer. That is not independent.

If chemical castration doesn’t work, the Geiers can sell you other expensive and dangerous treatments that do not work, such as chelation. Chelation is the use of chemicals to remove heavy metals from the body, based on the assumption that mercury causes autism. Chelation is harmful, so it is only indicated, when there is a good reason to believe the benefit will be greater than the harm. There is no valid evidence to support this hunch of the Geiers.

The motto of the company run by the Geiers is First do no harm. Are they completely unaware of the harm they cause, or so dishonest that they tell the boldest lies? Does it matter why they harm children?

–

What did Bob Sears do to get his license revoked? He claimed to assess patients, but did not keep records of what he claimed to do. His incompetence/negligence endangered patients.[5] ,[6]

For example, a mother frequently brought J.G., a 2 year old, to see Dr. Bob. One visit was for a head ache a couple of weeks after the child’s father hit the child on the head with a hammer. The only apparent concern of the mother and Dr. Bob was to prevent the child from receiving vaccines. There is no record of any neurological assessment, or referral to a competent doctor for a neurological assessment.

J.G. had visited Dr. Bob the previous month for constipation. Assessment and treatment plans were documented. Constipation can be very serious, but so can hitting a child on the head with a hammer. The reason for the difference in approaches was determined to be gross negligence. Another visit, following apparent resolution of otitis media following treatment with Omnicef (cefdinir), there was a diagnosis of a sudden onset of flu, with a prescription for Tamiflu (oseltamivir), so there is no apparent hesitation to use ineffective, or minimally effective, treatments. Is J.G.’s last name Munchausen, or is he just unlucky in his choice of parents?

Bob Sears does not appear to be hesitant to prescribe drugs based on hunches, but he does appear to recognize that being anti-vax can be very profitable. Sears has written 4 books, but still fails to document assessments.

Bob Sears will have to be monitored by another physician for 35 months, following this revocation, to be able to get his license reinstated. He must follow all laws, not be negligent, and not deviate from the standard of medical care. He cannot just take the 3 years off and write books, because he has to be monitored while working to get his license back.

It looks like Bob Sears will be vaccinating children, just as real doctors do.

–

Vaccines save millions of lives every year.

Vaccines are probably the safest and most effective medical intervention we have, and anti-vaxers hate that.

If some of us do not see the need for vaccines, it is because of the success of vaccines. Vaccines are an important part of the reason that the average life expectancy has doubled in a little over 100 years.

For a great review of the effect of vaccines on vaccine-preventable illnesses, there is a study in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), which shows how the rate of each illness, and deaths from each illness, declined after the introduction of each vaccine. There are anti-vaxers who claim that it wasn’t the vaccines, but sanitation that stopped these illnesses. Don’t fall for that.[7]

Sanitation is important at preventing the spread of illnesses, but sanitation does not wait for each different vaccine to be introduced for each different vaccine-preventable illness to change the illness and fatality rates.

In 2011, his son David Geier was charged by the Maryland State Board of Physicians with practicing as if a licensed physician when he only has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology,[42] and was fined $10,000 in July 2012.[40]

Charges by the Maryland Medical Board
In the Matter of David A. Geier before the Maryland State Board of Physicians
Practicing without a licensePDF document of charges

The Respondent is not and never has been licensed to practice medicine or any other health profession in the State of Maryland or any other State.

–

[4]I’ve Seen It Work and Other Lies
Tue, 21 Jun 2011
Rogue MedicArticle

[6]Stipulated Settlement and Disciplinary Order
Decision of the Medical Board of California
Department of Consumer Affairs
State of California
Case No. 800-2015-012268
OAH No. 2017100889PDF of Decision

The rate of autism diagnosis has increased dramatically as people eat more organic food, but that does not mean that organic food causes autism. The way to find out is to study this.

Researchers have looked for any reason to believe that vaccines, or vaccine ingredients, cause autism. The results are the same, regardless of whether the study is in America, Europe, Asia, . . . , and regardless of whether the study is run by private organizations, governments, corporations, or universities.[1]

For example, does thimerosal cause autism? Here is just one study looking for causation. There isn’t even a correlation.

CONCLUSIONS:
The discontinuation of thimerosal-containing vaccines in Denmark in 1992 was followed by an increase in the incidence of autism. Our ecological data do not support a correlation between thimerosal-containing vaccines and the incidence of autism.[2]

If thimerosal causes autism, why does the rate of diagnosis of autism continue to increase after the removal of thimerosal?

Hundreds of medical organizations sent a letter to President Trump in an attempt to get the president to look at the evidence, rather than listen to the scientifically naive activists promoting conspiracy theories.

On behalf of organizations representing families, providers, researchers, patients, and consumers, we write to express our unequivocal support for the safety of vaccines.[3]

Unequivocal support means that they are completely confident that vaccines are safe, not that vaccines are 100% safe, Nothing is 100% safe, so demanding for 100% safety is an argument against everything – even breathing isn’t 100% safe.

Globally, vaccines prevent the deaths of roughly 2.5 million children per year.1 And, data shows that just for children born in the United States in 2009, routine childhood immunizations will prevent approximately 42,000 early deaths and 20 million cases of disease with savings of more than $82 billion in societal costs.2[3]

Scare stories discourage us from doing what is best for our children.

RESULTS:
A greater than 92% decline in cases and a 99% or greater decline in deaths due to diseases prevented by vaccines recommended before 1980 were shown for diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus. Endemic transmission of poliovirus and measles and rubella viruses has been eliminated in the United States; smallpox has been eradicated worldwide. Declines were 80% or greater for cases and deaths of most vaccine-preventable diseases targeted since 1980 including hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, Hib, and varicella. Declines in cases and deaths of invasive S pneumoniae were 34% and 25%, respectively.[4]

Polio would have been eradicated by now, if it weren’t for the opposition of anti-vaxers.

Should we listen to those who, although they may mean well, do not understand what they are doing, or should we listen to doctors?

Doctors vaccinate themselves and their children because they understand that vaccines are safe and vaccines work.

–

Footnotes:

–

[1]75 studies that show no link between vaccines and autism UPDATED to 107
Just the Vax
Friday, March 7, 2014
Edited to fix links and to add more studies for a new total of 107 on 11 March 2014
Guest blog, compiled by Allison Hagood, Luci Baldwin, Kathy McGrath and Nathan Boonstra and originally published on the “Your Baby’s Best Shot” Facebook page. I am grateful for the permission to repost!List of studies

Don’t expect the self-proclaimed vaccine safety organizations to write about this, unless they are claiming that it is a part of some sort of international conspiracy of governments, universities, private companies, and other research organizations.

They are not interested in safety.

They are interested in creating fear and making money off of the fear they create.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory polyradiculoneuropathy affecting primarily motor neurons, which in severe cases can progress to complete paralysis and even death. Estimates of GBS incidence are in the range of 1–2 cases per 100 000 person-years worldwide, and increase with age [1, 2]. Although the causes are unknown, GBS is thought to be an autoimmune process that is triggered by antigenic stimulation [3, 4], resulting in demyelination and destruction of peripheral nerves.[1]

Vaccines affect the immune system, so there is the hypothetical possibility of a physiologic justification of a connection between vaccination and GBS.

Is that the way GBS works?

In many cases, the syndrome is temporally associated with an infectious disease; most published case series report that approximately two-thirds of all cases are preceded by a gastrointestinal or respiratory infection within the prior 3 months [1]. Campylobacter enteritis is the most common trigger, but influenza [5], cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, among others, have been implicated as well [4, 6, 7].[1]

Vaccines affect the immune system by strengthening the immune system to better fight infection.

Infection appears to be a cause, while vaccination protects against infection.

Click on the image to make it larger/display fully.

There is an editorial in the same issue. The authors have no conflicts of interest, but they provide further information about the possible association of GBS with vaccination.

Questions have been raised about Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) after vaccinations since the 1976 Swine flu vaccine was associated with a 7- to 8-fold increased risk for GBS in the 6 weeks after vaccination, resulting in about 1 excess case of GBS per 100 000 vaccinees.[2]

Has there been any other association in the 37 years since 1976?

In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Baxter and colleagues [15] examined the risk of GBS after administration of various vaccines, including influenza, tetanus, diphtheria, pneumococcal polysaccharide, and others, and they found no evidence of an association between GBS and vaccination.[2]

No evidence of any association of any vaccine with GBS.

The conclusion of the editorial is something the vaccine denialists need to understand.

Even if there was a risk of 1–2 cases per million for GBS, this risk is greatly outweighed by the benefits of vaccination.[2]

Vaccine denialism is about ignoring the real risks of not getting vaccinated, but complaining about the much more rare risks of vaccination.

Are the vaccine risks real?

Probably not, but even if vaccines cause some harm, the danger from not getting vaccinated is much greater.

Whether for our children, or ourselves, vaccination is the safe thing to do.

Oregon is changing its policy for vaccine exemptions, but only by requiring parents to be informed about the risks they are dealing with.

Vaccines are not 100% effective and doctors do not pretend that vaccines are 100% effective, but anti-vaccine propagandists claim that nobody is endangered when they do not vaccinate their children.

That claim is a lie.

There will always be some people for whom the vaccine is not effective. These children are endangered by unvaccinated children transmitting vaccine-preventable diseases.

There will always be people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. Cancer patients are just one example of a large group of people endangered by unvaccinated children transmitting vaccine-preventable diseases.

Proponents point to the current 6.4 percent of Oregon kindergartners whose parents exempted them on religious grounds from at least one vaccination this year — the highest rate in the nation and one that has increased steadily over the past decade.[1]

This is measles, but the same is true of other vaccine-preventable diseases. They have been increasing since Andrew Wakefield tried to discredit the MMR vaccine in order to sell his own competing vaccine.

Vaccine-preventable diseases are not good for children.

Opponents of the bill claim that this is discrimination against religious people because the exemption waiver states that the child is not vaccinating for religious reasons.

This is also a lie.

While the waiver does state that it is for religious reasons, the anti-vaccine propagandists have encouraged their followers to claim that they have religious objections. This does nothing to prevent parents with religious reasons for refusing vaccination for their children from continuing to refuse vaccination for their children.

There is no current requirement that parents know anything about vaccines before preventing their children from being vaccinated. this bill would require that they receive accurate information from an online video or receive information from a doctor before preventing their children from being vaccinated.

Parents will still have the option of receiving inaccurate information about vaccines from the few anti-vaccine doctors out there, like Dr. Jay Gordon,[2] an anti-vaccine propagandist. They will still be able to have their biases reinforced by an anti-vaccine doctor. Yes, the terms anti-vaccine and doctor do indicate a lack of understanding of medicine.

Sen. Doug Whitsett of Klamath Falls said he personally believes vaccination is “the right thing to do.”

But “who are we to tell the parents of children that they must vaccinate … their children? Where do we get that right?” he asked.[1]

That is suggesting that the bill would force vaccination, which is not true, but why should we expect truth from politicians?

Informed consent is the standard of care and this bill is attempting to present parents with accurate information, rather than the misinformation that anti-vaccine groups use to try to scare parents.

Parents are only trying to do what is best for their children.

We should be helping them to make good decisions based on information that is true.

A similar law implemented in Washington state in 2011 reduced by 25 percent the rate of kindergartners with at least one religious exemption from immunization, officials said.[1]

We are faced with a return of diseases that killed children at the beginning of the last century, but were almost completely eliminated near the end of the century. These diseases are coming back and killing children again, due to the actions of anti-vaccine propagandists.

This is a simple action to help parents protect their children from vaccine-preventable diseases.

–

Footnotes:

–

[1]Vaccine opt-out change advances – Senators vote to require parents who don’t want a child vaccinated to get a science lesson first
By Saul Hubbard
The Register-Guard
Published: 12:00 A.M., June 7Article

The graph on the right shows how many papers, that meet the search terms, by year of publication. This goes from a single paper published in 1900 to 780 malaria prophylaxis papers published in 2012.

What about homeopathy prophylaxis for malaria?

Three papers are listed. Two are critical of homeopathic prophylaxis for malaria[2],[3] and one seems to be there because all three of the words appear in a review of the Indian health system.[4]

Malaria kills about 660,000 people each year, mostly in children under five years of age,[5] so selling a fraudulent vaccine is something that should be aggressively punished.

There is a scene in The Third Man, where the charming villain is explaining to his friend why he doesn’t care that his diluted drugs kill people. Diluted drugs could be a definition of homeopathy.

[youtube]8i47-QBL4Qo[/youtube]

Victims? Don’t be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax – the only way you can save money nowadays.[6]

£20,000 would be worth over half a million pounds today, or about $800,000.

Recommending that anyone use a malaria vaccine is something that should be prosecuted as at least reckless endangerment, but too many people are worried about offending the superstitious. The alternative medicine industry has a lot of money to contribute to politicians.

We are not much better in EMS, since many of us believe in giving treatments that have no good evidence of safety or efficacy.

Licensing naturopaths suggests that they are safe and effective. That is not true.

We should stop lowering our standards and oppose this fraud.

There is an article at Science-Based Medicine that provides more detail on this move to use our tax dollars to pay for these superstitious practices.

The measure, LD 754, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Andrea Boland, ran into stiff opposition from doctors, who said that requiring ingredients be disclosed specifically for vaccines — while not imposing similar requirements for antibiotics and prescription drugs — would signal that vaccines are disproportionately dangerous.[1]

Is anyone trying to hide the ingredients of vaccines?

Absolutely not.

The ingredients for every vaccine are available, but before you start making the mistake of assuming that scary sounding names are dangerous, take less than 4 minutes to watch the video below.

[youtube]uwcRxssifo8[/youtube]

Why only the ingredients of vaccines?

To make them seem scary.

In case you think that Rep. Boland is trustworthy, here is what she says about vaccine safety.

“When you read some of [the ingredients], it does sound kind of scary. The provider is there to counsel their patients, and they can assure them that they will not have any serious side effects and it’s the best thing to do.”[1]

It’s the best thing to do.

If vaccination is the best thing to do, why create obstacles to vaccination?

Rep. Bolton appears to be letting her personal nutraceutical business interests get between her and what is best for the children she is supposed to represent.

If you have a bit more time than the less than 4 minutes it took to watch the video, then listen to a 33 1/2 minute podcast, where Dr. Mark Crislip explains what is wrong with a silly claim by a naturopath.[2] “9 Questions That Stump Every Pro-Vaccine Advocate and Their Claims.” by David Mihalovic, ND. Really?

If you believe that vaccines are dangerous, then you need to listen to this podcast.

The anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists claim that vaccines do not work.

Vaccines are all part of some conspiracy among all of the governments which have studied vaccines, or part of some conspiracy among all of the universities which have studied vaccines, or part of some conspiracy among all of the drug companies which have studied vaccines, or part of some conspiracy among all of the doctors who have studied vaccines, or . . . .

I am kidding, of course. The anti-vax conspiracy theorists claim that this conspiracy includes all of the above. They believe in a conspiracy that makes the JFK assassination conspiracy, the moon landing conspiracy, and the 911 inside job conspiracy seem tiny and insignificant.

There must be some kind of science that supports their fanaticism. Right?

There is no science to support these conspiracy theories.

Some people with children think that it is dangerous to inject non-infectious material into their children in order to provoke the immune system to produce immunity.

The language of Penn & Teller may not be appropriate for children, but their message is.

–

Here is some evidence from various countries.

Are these studies, and many more, all just part of some massive conspiracy?

From America –

Results A greater than 92% decline in cases and a 99% or greater decline in deaths due to diseases prevented by vaccines recommended before 1980 were shown for diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus. Endemic transmission of poliovirus and measles and rubella viruses has been eliminated in the United States; smallpox has been eradicated worldwide. Declines were 80% or greater for cases and deaths of most vaccine-preventable diseases targeted since 1980 including hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, Hib, and varicella. Declines in cases and deaths of invasive S pneumoniae were 34% and 25%, respectively.[1]

–

From Australia –

Since the introduction of childhood vaccination for diphtheria in 1932 and the widespread use of vaccines to prevent tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and poliomyelitis in the 1950s, deaths in Australia from vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) have declined by more than 99%. It is important, however, that the downward trend in morbidity and mortality from VPDs is maintained and carefully monitored, and that changes are interpreted in relation to vaccination coverage.[2]

–

From Germany –

The incidence rate in the eastern federal states is lower than in the western federal states owing to a smaller portion of endangered risk groups in the population. The trend on the whole is declining.[3]

–

From Switzerland –

Since the mid-1970s, the widespread establishment and implementation of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) has led to remarkable achievements in controlling vaccine preventable diseases worldwide. Today, more children than ever are being reached with immunization; interruption of poliomyelitis transmission has occurred in most countries; mortality due to measles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis has been reduced to record low levels.[4]

–

From Mexico –

Rotavirus is the leading recognized cause of diarrhea-related illness and death among infants and young children.1-5 Every year, rotavirus is associated with 25 million clinic visits, 2 million hospitalizations, and more than 600,000 deaths worldwide among children younger than five years of age.6,7[5]

The efficacy of the vaccine against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis and against rotavirus-associated hospitalization was 85 percent (P<0.001 for the comparison with placebo) and reached 100 percent against more severe rotavirus gastroenteritis. Hospitalization for diarrhea of any cause was reduced by 42 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 29 to 53 percent; P<0.001).[5]

Is any other medicine as effective as a vaccine?

Is any other medicine as safe as a vaccine?

This last paper is a placebo controlled comparison that makes it abundantly clear that vaccines do work, even though vaccines are not 100% effective.

Nothing is 100% effective or 100% safe, but that is what anti-vaxers claim to want.

Anti-vaxers appear to believe the lie that doing nothing is 100% safe.

The anti-vax conspiracy theorists would suggest that there is something wrong in giving our children a treatment that will safely and dramatically decrease our children’s risk for severe illness.

Complications were greater in the placebo group (the children who did not get the vaccine).

Avoiding vaccination is not safe.

Opposition to vaccination does not depend on science.

Opposition to vaccination depends on the country you are in, because the opposition is not scientific.

The opposition is emotional and political, which is expected with a conspiracy theory.

Science does not follow political boundaries, but conspiracy theories change with the politics.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

- Thomas Jefferson

Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1783)

-

Bigotry and science can have no communication with each other, for science begins where bigotry and absolute certainty end. The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof. Let us never forget that tyranny most often springs from a fanatical faith in the absoluteness of one’s beliefs.

Ashley Montagu.

-

Today we rely less on superstition and tradition than people did in the past, not because we are more rational, but because our understanding of risk enables us to make decisions in a rational mode.

- Peter L. Bernstein

Against the Gods: the remarkable story of risk (1996)

-

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

Barry Goldwater.

-

I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.

Barry Goldwater

Said in July 1981 in response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned." as quoted in Ed Magnuson, "The Brethren's First Sister," Time Magazine, (20 July, 1981)

-

What do you think science is? There's nothing magical about science. It is simply a systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature and using consistent logic to evaluate results. Which part of that exactly do you disagree with? Do you disagree with being thorough? Using careful observation? Being systematic? Or using consistent logic?

Dr. Steven Novella.

-

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.

Sigmund Freud (1933)

Today the samizdat is digital and burning a copy has the opposite meaning. A little later, persecution of the Jews was once again the law - Freud's four sisters all died in concentration camps, although not by burning.

-

"Can you prove that it’s impossible?” “No”, I said, “I can’t prove it’s impossible. It’s just very unlikely”. At that he said, “You are very unscientific. If you can’t prove it impossible then how can you say that it’s unlikely?” But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible. To define what I mean, I might have said to him, "Listen, I mean that from my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence." It is just more likely. That is all.

Richard Feynman.

The Character of Physical Law (1965)
chapter 7, “Seeking New Laws,” p. 165-166:

It has been over half century since Feynman explained this. The reports of flying saucers have continued, but there is still no valid evidence to support belief in flying saucers. Feynman's explanation is a good definition of unlikely.

-

An ignorant mind is precisely not a spotless, empty vessel, but one that’s filled with the clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, facts, intuitions, strategies, algorithms, heuristics, metaphors, and hunches that regrettably have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge.

David Dunning - explaining the Dunning-Kruger effect.

-

Treat beliefs not as sacred possessions to be guarded but rather as testable hypotheses to be discarded when the evidence mounts against them.

Philip Tetlock.

-

Squatting in between those on the side of reason and evidence and those worshipping superstition and myth is not a better place. It just means you’re halfway to crazy town.

PZ Myers

-

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Thomas Jefferson.

-

Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

-

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Will Durant.

-

You don't use science to show that you're right,

you use science to become right.

Randall Munroe

-

Just because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you.

There appears to be in mankind an unacceptable prejudice in favor of ancient customs and habitudes which allows practices to continue long after the circumstances, which formerly made them useful, cease to exist

Benjamin Franklin.

-

If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong,

then Buddhism will have to change.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama.

-

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them;

Thomas Jefferson.

-

Science doesn't make it impossible to believe in God.

It just makes it possible to not believe in God.

Stephen Weinberg.

-

There are no forbidden questions in science,

no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed,

no sacred truths.

Carl Sagan.

-

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Thomas Jefferson.

-

It is better to not understand something true,
than to understand something false.

Neils Bohr.

-

God does not play dice with the universe.

Albert Einstein

Stop telling God what to do with his dice.

response by Neils Bohr.

-

All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.

Paracelsus.

-

What is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true.

H.L. Mencken.

-

Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.

Niels Bohr.

-

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.

Niels Bohr.

-

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr.

-

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

Niels Bohr.

-

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.

Niels Bohr.

-

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein.

-

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Albert Einstein.

-

Never memorize what you can look up in books.

Albert Einstein.

-

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in the United States is closely connected with this.

Albert Einstein.

-

the chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction - a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory - who will find it? Only someone who has sacrificed himself by teaching himself quantum electrodynamics from a peculiar and unusual point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself. I say sacrificed himself because he most likely will get nothing from it, because the truth may lie in another direction, perhaps even the fashionable one.

If you've made up your mind to test a theory, or you want to explain some idea, you should always decide to publish it whichever way it comes out. If we only publish results of a certain kind, we can make the argument look good. We must publish both kinds of results.

If a reasonable launch schedule is to be maintained, engineering often cannot be done fast enough to keep up with the expectations of originally conservative certification criteria designed to guarantee a very safe vehicle. In these situations, subtly, and often with apparently logical arguments, the criteria are altered so that flights may still be certified in time. They therefore fly in a relatively unsafe condition, with a chance of failure of the order of a percent (it is difficult to be more accurate).

Official management, on the other hand, claims to believe the probability of failure is a thousand times less. One reason for this may be an attempt to assure the government of NASA perfection and success in order to ensure the supply of funds. The other may be that they sincerely believed it to be true, demonstrating an almost incredible lack of communication between themselves and their working engineers.

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard Feynman.

-

Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation ... Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way:

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Richard Feynman.

-

The only way to have real success in science, the field I’m familiar with, is to describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. If you have a theory, you must try to explain what’s good and what’s bad about it equally. In science, you learn a kind of standard integrity and honesty.

Richard Feynman.

-

Some people say, "How can you live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know.

Richard Feynman.

-

I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.

Richard Feynman.

-

So, to test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies . . . publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?

Common sense in matters medical is rare, and is usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education.

William Osler.

-

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

William Osler.

-

The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.

William Osler.

-

One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.

William Osler.

-

In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur.

-

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

Louis Pasteur.

-

Not far from the invention of fire must rank the invention of doubt.

Thomas Henry Huxley.

-

The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

Thomas Henry Huxley.

-

The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.

Thomas Henry Huxley.

-

My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonise with my aspirations.

Thomas Henry Huxley.

-

There must have been a time, in the beginning, when we could have said – no. But somehow we missed it.

Tom Stoppard

-

All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired.

G. K. Chesterton

-

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

G. K. Chesterton

-

Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed.

G. K. Chesterton

-

Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.

George Santayana

-

If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.

Karl Popper

-

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

Upton Sinclair

-

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

Jean-Paul Sartre

-

Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will.

Frédéric Bastiat

-

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to ﬁll the world with fools.

Herbert Spencer

-

Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell

-

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams

-

We're not presuming the answers before we ask the questions.

Lawrence Krauss explaining how science works

-

Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietum Servitium.

Better freedom with danger than peace with slavery.

-

Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."

Wislawa Szymborska

-

All sorts of torturers, dictators, fanatics, and demagogues struggling for power by way of a few loudly shouted slogans also enjoy their jobs, and they too perform their duties with inventive fervor.

Well, yes, but they "know." They know, and whatever they know is enough for them once and for all.

They don't want to find out about anything else, since that might diminish their arguments' force.

Wislawa Szymborska.

-

Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact.

George Santayana

-

Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.

George Santayana.

-

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.

George Santayana

-

There is a fundamental difference between religion,

which is based on authority,

and science,

which is based on observation and reason.

Science will win because it works.

Stephen Hawking.

-

The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.

H.L. Mencken.

-

It is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true; it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.

I am attempting to make it easier, when I use footnotes, to navigate to the information in a footnote, look at the information, and return to where you were before you clicked on the footnote. If you click on the number of a footnote in the text[1] <- click on the bracketed and underlined number - in this case [1], it will bring the footnote to the top of the screen.

[1] If you click on the bracketed and underlined number of a footnote in footnote section, the [1] at the beginning of this paragraph, it will take you to where you clicked on the footnote in the text, with the footnote along the top of the screen. [To top of footnotes]

If you wish to modify the size of the text, you can press the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel forward or back, or you can press the CTRL key and the + or - keys to make text larger or smaller. Another way is to adjust the font in your browser controls.

This is a mostly medical blog, so here is the HIPAA incantation to ward off evil whiny HIPAA-obsessed spirits.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is generally misrepresented by those in health care, but there are no violations of HIPAA here. There are some patients I could not discuss without changing details, so details may be omitted, or changed. That may decrease the dramatic effect of some of what I write, but patients are entitled to their privacy and have been since before HIPAA became the ignorant administrators' justification for imitating a two year old yelling NO!

I am not dispensing medical advice. If you get your medical advice off of a blog, instead of consulting a physician (such as your medical director), you probably should not be treating anyone, not even yourself. I could include your dog, but that would suggest that veterinarians do not provide excellent care. The veterinarians I know take pride in the care they deliver and deliver excellent care, more so than many people I know in EMS.

I do point you to research to support what I write, but you still need to make sure that you have the authorization of your medical director before changing any of your treatments. If your medical director does not agree, you can point to the research I write about. Most doctors do understand research, they just have trouble keeping up with the amount of research that is produced.

What I write does not change your protocols. If you do not like a protocol, take it up with the medical director. I have several inadequate protocols, too. I call medical command and attempt to persuade the physician that what I am requesting is in the best interest of the patient. It is rare that I am turned down, but the dose is often inadequate. I call back before I need more, so the patient does not have to put up with the On Line Medical Command delay in treatment. Health care providers should be anticipating where the care of the patient is headed - both for good and for bad.

I do not have any connection to the products I mention, other than using them and being satisfied, dissatisfied, or some combination of the two. If I have any potential conflict of interest, I will mention it clearly.

If I write about a book by an author I know, I will encourage you to buy the book from the author's web site. This means that any money goes to the author (or to where the author wants the money to go, such as a charity) and you have an opportunity to sample the author's writing for free on the author's blog before buying the book.

I may be blunt, but I do not intend it personally. There are few mistakes that can be made that I have not made. I continue to try not to be stupid; you may conclude that I fail.

I welcome any relevant comments and much that is not relevant. I reserve the right to delete any inappropriate comments. I decide what is appropriate based on my own nebulous standards. Criticism of ideas is expected. Criticism of writing style is appreciated.

I avoid obscenity because I believe that the English language provides enough opportunities for creativity that resorting to the words that may not be said on TV (and a growing group of words that may) is unnecessary. I may quote something that contains some of these words, or I may link to something that does, but that is as bad as I expect to be with these words.

On the other hand, you may feel that the ideas I present are offensive. My aim is to encourage thought, dialogue, and creativity - not to tell you everything is OK. You may leave this blog at any time and bury your mind in comfortable, familiar ideas.

If you feel that the ideas I present are not challenging, please encourage me to address whatever you feel I do not adequately address.